RPS Community Update: What You Did in Blood Bowl 2, Pen And Paper Games, PlanetSide 2 and More

October is when the nights draw in and evenings are best spent gathered around a fire, playing board games. Or hunched in front of a monitor, playing on Roll20.

On the other hand, what better way to warm up than with big gatherings of the community – either online or off? Read on to find out what we’ve been up to in Blood Bowl 2 [official site], pen and paper games, PlanetSide 2 [official site], real life and more.

Blood Bowl 2

Fancy a fantasy parody of American football, traditionally played on a table? Well Blood Bowl 2, the game’s digital variant, is out.

And it’s got… ‘Mixed’ reviews on Steam? That doesn’t matter to our community though; our Blood Bowlers have gotten stuck into the sequel, with the first season already coming to a close soon.

This means it’s an ideal time to register for the second season, with sign-ups closing on Tuesday 17th November.

It’s especially timely as everyone is still experimenting with team combinations and throwing them against similar strangely composed sides. If you’re ready to smash your Skaven against enemy Dark Elves in an explosion of turn-based strategy, then now’s the time to get your (possibly horned?) head in the game.

You can read more information in the first post here, and post in that thread to confirm your team.

Pen and Paper

Sticking on games traditionally played on a tabletop, did you know RPS have a thriving community of folks gathering on Mumble every week for dice-based funsies? There’s quite a few different active games, the foremost being Dungeon World – an old school crawler with modern rules, particularly around how the GM plays.

The current campaign has been going on for months, and the team of colourful characters are about to cross into a watery temple full of sharky-men-things. If you’d like to join them on the journey, you can listen in on the RPS Mumble from 7PM GMT on Fridays. Once you’re comfortable with the rules and setting, grab a Roll20.net account and message CardinalDirection on the forum with your e-mail address to get invited to the game.

After fleshing out your character, you’ll be slotted into the campaign at an appropriate time so you can play along. While you wait, you can keep track of the game over on the thread.

It wouldn’t be a board game subforum without Dungeons and Dragons, and Paranoiachii also has a game of the good old double-D on the go, currently with five players and a GM (or should that be DM?).

They’re playing with the fifth edition, which my thorough research tells me is one after the fourth, but one before the sixth. Starting in the first week of October, the campaign seems to have a distinctly ‘short’ theme, sporting gnomes and dwarves.

The most recent report tells of a special meeting with a lord, portals in a swamp monster’s stomach and evil scarecrows. You can follow the story for yourself here, and check out all of the other active games on the subforum. You can also join their Steam group to find people to play with.

PlanetSide 2

At the start of the month, around 20 players from RPS’ outfits made the journey to Stirling, Scotland. They gathered at Plane Castle for the annual anniversary meetup, coordinated by Cei.

Much fun was had by all attendants, including treks into the Scottish mist, drinks of Scotch Mist, sampling of sticky gingerbread, and (of course) playing board games. From the looks of the thread, it seems to have been a unanimous success, and there’s sure to be another next year.

At the end of the month, our PS2ers hosted ‘Nanite of the Living Dead’ in-game – a two-hour brain-munching fest on the live server. Zombies used light assault and medic classes, armed only with knives, Adrenaline Pump and a hunger for flesh. The humans had to survive for two hours against the onslaught, but once killed, they made a ‘zombie’ character of their own and joined the horde.

Absolutely tonnes of people turned out for the romp across the misty continent, once again asserting RPS’ tradition for doing cool things together on Miller. The huge attendance proved that the RPS PS2 outfits are still capable of organising, hosting and chaperoning large scale in-game events.

This level of strategy will be essential in the possible forthcoming ‘Call to Arms’. If you’ve never participated in them before, Call to Arms are evenings of shooty fun open to anyone (even you!). It’s been some time since RPS last held one, and we’ll announce more details as they become finalised.

If you’d like to join the RPS PS2 outfits in the meantime, head over to their subforum. The two biggest active outfits on Vanu Sovereignty and New Conglomerate have stickies there, with the Terran Republic thread being here. Post in the relevant thread with your character name and you’ll receive an invite shortly afterwards.

The most active players have characters in all three outfits, and you’re welcome to participate in all of their regular weekly events too.

Real Life Social Club (London)

We’ve posted about the RPS Social Club a few times on the main site in the past and it’s worth remembering that one takes place every month, usually at the (possibly haunted) Blue Posts in Soho. It’s been going on since 2011 and the regulars sound like a friendly bunch to play games with.

If you’re up for an assortment of alcohol-based antics, capers, larks and shenanigans, pop over to this forum thread and skip to the last page to see when the next is taking place. At the moment, it looks like November’s will be on the 28th. They’re open to any RPSer, but please do keep an eye on the thread in case the venue changes.

On a somewhat related note, is anyone off to Thought Bubble in Leeds this weekend? Let us know in the comments below.

And Finally

The two weekly Europa Universalis campaigns continue, with consistent participation by over 25 players. After the rounds each week, discussions in the twothreads contribute to developing separate cultures. This has been epitomised by Ax1008’s periodic tributes to Polandballs, adapted for Sunday’s custom nations.